Emergency cutting means for wearing apparel



Oct. 13, 1953 R. STOLL 2,654,964

EMERGENCY CUTTING MEANS FOR WEARING APPAREL Filed July 14, 1950 3nnentor ROBERT STOLL mama z".

(Ittorneg Patented Oct. 13, 195 3 UNITED STATES FATENT OFFICE EMERGENCY CUTTING MEANS FOR WEARING APPAREL Robert Stoll, Greeley, 0010.

Application July 14, 1950, Serial No. 173,732

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to pliably constructed tearable articles of wearing apparel and clothing, such as boots, coats, trousers, capes, waders, and aviators, hunters and fishermens items of clothing, whether made of finely knit natural or artificial fabrics, as well as of watertight rubber or plastics construction, and especially for adapting such articles of clothing to being quickly removable. In the many uses of such articles, there are times when it becomes necessary to be able to quickly remove same, so as to have a chance to preserve life, such as when a duck hunter with his heavy boots finds himself suddenly in a sinking or swamped boat, or a fisherman with his hip boots or Waist high waders finds himself in water too deep for them, necessitating a quick removal of the article in order to prevent drowning, as once such an article becomes full of water the wearer is pulled below the surface by the Weight and suction of the water in the article and swimming with them on is prohibited thereby.

It is a principal object of this invention to provide an operable cutting means, normally associated with the clothing article material in the manufacture thereof, such as by laminating, as a part of that material, which means is adapted to completely and irreplaceably bisect said material upon operation thereof upon any emergency arising.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a cutting means in the form of an elongated cutting element, such as a fine flexible wire or cord, using the loop thereof as the cutting point.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a novel operable cutting head member cutting means, adapted to be operated upon an emergency arising, and formed as a normal part of the article of clothing in the manufacture thereof, for irreplaceably completely bisecting the material upon operation, comprising a knife laminatedly formed transversely of the material and operably held by a pair of slidable guide plates positioned on each side of the material and secured to and carrying the knife in operative relationship to the material.

These and. other objects will appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference have been used to represent like parts, and of which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a fishermans hip boot embodying one modification of my invention, having a flexible wire loop cutting means at one end thereof, and a cutter head-guide rib 2 arrangement at its other or top end thereof, before start of cutting operation;

Fig. 1a is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of my cutter head used in Figure 1;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a partial elevational view of the wire loop cutting operation of the boot of Fig. 1, after the start of such loop cutting operation.

For convenience of reference, I summarize my drawings and invention as follows:

Figures 1, 1a, 2 and 3 show my invention, wherein a hip boot has a single wire loop cutting means at one end of the wire, and the other end of the wire being formed into two segments, with each segmental end movable, and at the end of each segment there is attached a cutter head which cooperates with a guide rib on the surface of the boot.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. l, a wire I l having about the top twelve inches split into two pieces, is placed inside the top of a hip boot II], with the end of each segment or piece, lib and I I0, placed transversely around the inside boot top. The wire II is then placed down the inside front of the boot clear down to a point adjacent below the instep, near the top toe portion of the boot, and then through the boot at the lowermost point L, and then partially up the front outside of the boot to adjacent below the knee portion. Breakable rubber band straps I2 are secured at intervals to assure that the positioning of the wire is not disturbed upon insertion and withdrawal of the foot and leg during normal use of the boot. The point L, where the wire extends from under to outside the boot toe portion, is tearably sealed after the wire is inserted therethrough, so as to be watertight. The outside portion of the lower wire loop is designated as portion Ila, and its upper end has a finger ring l5 secured thereto. Ring I5 is normally held accessibly under a partially sealed protector flap l6, as illustrated. Flap I6 is glued to the outside of the boot at its top and two sides, leaving its lower edge free for quick finger insertion therebelow for ripping the patch off and simultaneously grasping the ring 15 whenever desired. Each top segment [lb and lie, of wire H, has its end secured to a cutter head !3. Referring to Fig. 1a, the cutter head 13 comprises a pair of spaced apart parallel guide plates i8 and I 9, designed to slidably ride against each side of the, material M of the garment. i8 is the outside plate, and [9 the inside one. l8 has its front edge flared outwardly slightly to insure that it will smoothly glide on the material when operated. Plate I9 has its front edge tapered to a point for reason to be explained. A cutting knife 20, formed with a receding front edge outter in this modification, is a single blade, and is suitably secured transversely or perpendicular to the plates I8I9, as by welding thereto, and the knife 20 acts to hold the plates spacedly apart, as illustrated. The front receding cutting edge of knife 20 is formed suitably sharpened to act as the cutting edge as the front of the cutter is pulled against the material M. There are two of these cutter heads I3, one secured to the extreme end of segment IIb and the other to the extreme end of wire segment llc, with back edges of each cutter head I3 resting against each other originally in the formation of the boot. A guide rib I4 is formed to extend beyond the surface of the boot adjacent the top of the boot and transversely around the top, as illustrated, and having a gap in its continuity at its front portion, forreason to be explained. Each cutter head I3 outside guide plate I8 is formed with an outwardly extending channel Ila adapted to slidably encase the boot rib I4, for the obvious reason of guiding the cutter head, during cutting operation from the rear to the front of the boot in a transverse or horizontal plane, thus assuring that each cutter head I3 will meet at a common front point of the boot adjacent the gap in the rib I4. That gap is P o" vided so that when the pointed plates I9, of each cutter head I3, abut against each other adjacent that gap, when the wire II is operated, as willbe hereinafter explained, said plates I9 may be pulled through or cut the boot from the inside to the outside at that point of' gap in the rib. Each cutter head I3 has its wire I'Ib'or No, as the case may be, secured, as illustrated, infront of-the point of the knife '20 and to thepointed guide plate I9, since the wire is on the inside of the boot. As a result of the receding angle of the cutting edge of the knife 20 of eachcutter head I3, during operation of the cutter-head, the cutting of the material by 20 will cause a small amount of frictional pressure against that receding edge, which in turn will cause the outer guide plate 'I8'to keepits channel Na in meshed relationship along the rib I4, thus assuring efficient cutting of the top of the boot from the back around each side to the front upon the wearer pulling wire II forwardly of the front gap in the rib, as will be further explained;

The operation of the cutting means illustrated in Figures 1, 1a, 2 and 3 is accomplishedby the wearer inserting his bent fingers under the lower edge of flap IBuntil one of them grasps andengages the ring I5, and then hepulls that ring upwardly. That action tears fiap I6-andcauses the lower loop end of the wire II to cut the en-- tire boot material M; starting at point L, as the ring and its wire are'pulled upwardly, said loop end being raised thereby. That movement andcutting bythewire H continue until-the loop has bisected 'theboot in a line-upwardly toa point approaching the gap area between adjoining portions of the rib I4, when continued upward and forwardmovement of the wire -II is then made by the wearer for causing the wire segments IIb and I Ic-to pull the'cutter headof each horizontally around the top of the boot, withchannel Ma of each" cutter head then guiding each cutter head I3 on its rib I4. Upon completion of the pull of the front-wire-Ihand thereby its segments IIb and- He, the pair ofcutter heads, I3, converge together at the front of the boot adjacent the gap area in the rib I4, and then the wearer exerts continued pulling on the wire I I which in turn will then cause said heads I3 to be pulled through the boot wall at a common point from the inside outwardly, being at the point of said gap area, as a result of said points of the knives 2|] abuttingly striking each other on the inside of the wall. Thereupon the boot will have been completely bisected from the front toe portion upwardly to the area of the gap in rib I4, and completely around the top adjacent the rib I4, the latter cut meeting the first one, thus permitting the wearer to kick off the boot in the water without first taking time to unbuckle the belt strap I1. It is to be noted that theemergency cutting, upon operation of my cutting means, is accomplished by both operable loose ends of the wire II, namely, by the lower loop end, and also by the movable cutter head other ends. A tearable patch covers the area over plates 'I8,'if desired, when manufactured.

It is to be understood that my novel cutting means, here shown and described, may be used in otherand sundryuses, and that many changes, combinations and modifications may be made in the light of the teaching herein disclosed. I therefore wish to bebound only within the scope of the hereunto appended claims.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination, a rubber boot having a toeportion and a circumferentially continuous pliable wall portion, a flexible wire having one end thereof secured adjacent the top of the boot and extending downwardly within the inside of theboot to a hole adjacent the upper toe portion and then extending through saidhole and partially backup the outside of the front of the boot in the form ofa loop, a finger ring secured to the other end of the wire, a tearable patch zontally aroundone side of the inside top-portion of'theboot and the other of said movable pair of wi-res'beingsimilarly placed around the other-- side of the inside of thetop portion 7 of the boot,- tearable-band means periodically extending over each ofsaid movable pair of wires throughout its-horizontal position for-normally holding samein place, and 'a-pair of operable cutter-head means laminatedly formed in abutting relationship'with relation-to the-wall portion and'securedone to each extreme end of eachofsaidpair of movable wires adjacent the top rear of theboot-and adapted upon being pulled horizontally to-bisect the boot-material in its path.

2. In an article of Wearing apparelconstructedof tearable material; in combination therewith, amanually operable knife-cutter head means pre-formed as a normal part. ofsaid-material and adaptedupon manual operation thereof alongthe material to bisectthe material throughout-operational travel thereof; and a flex-- ible wire means associated with the cutter head means and the material, with one end of the wire means positioned on the inside of the material and secured to the cutter head means and the other end of the wire means in looping arrangement with relation to and through the material to the outside of the material, said other end of the wire means being adapted to be manually pulled for effecting both wire looping and movement of said wire means from the inside to the 1 outside of the material for effecting an emergency cutting of the material by both the said cutter head means and the said looping arrangement of the other end of the wire means.

ROBERT STOLL.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Talcott June 14, 1904 Glidden Apr. 2, 1907 Lee June 11, 1907 Morse Apr. 7, 1925 Monette Dec. 1, 1936 Murphy May 23, 1939 Kopyto Aug. 4, 1942 Lehmer Oct. 5, 1943 

